


5 times various members of the party came out to Steve + 1 time he came out to them

by orphan_account



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 5+1, F/F, Gay Will Byers, Lesbian Maxine "Max" Mayfield, M/M, Supportive Steve Harrington, dustin and el are the bisexual squad, idk what else to tag, just read it, neil hargrove is an asshole, steve harrington is the party's mother, steve is a bicon, the party's shenanigans, will and el are siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:08:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24494005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: basically exactly what the title says, featuring mom steve who loves all his children equally, elmax, byler and chaotic bisexual dustin.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 21
Kudos: 340





	1. Chapter 1

1  
When Will Byers shows up at the home video store, alone and with tear stains, Steve immediately starts running through the possibilities in his head- another monster he had to kick the ass of? Mike Wheeler being a little shithead? Another nightmare, because the poor kid had already been through way too much? 

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks and Will’s lower lip trembles. 

“I think everyone hates me,” he mumbles and Steve opens his arms so the kid can fall into them. 

“There’s no way that’s true, kid,” Steve says and Will just cries harder. 

He sniffles, “I told them… I told them that I don’t… that I…” 

“That you what?” 

“I don’t want you to hate me too,” the boy hiccups into Steve’s chest. 

He replies, “I’m not going to hate you, Will. Don’t tell the other kids this, but you’re my favorite, ok? Whatever it is, I’m here for you. Got it?” 

“I’m gay.” 

“Oh,” Steve lets out a breath of relief, “That’s it?” 

“What?” Will asks and furrows his brow. 

“No, I meant I thought you’d killed somebody or something,” he shrugs, “Of course I don’t hate you and if anybody does, I hate them.” 

“Thanks, Steve,” Will hugs him again. 

“Any time, kiddo.” 

At that moment, the rest of the party sprints into the video store. 

“Will! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Dustin shouts. 

“Yeah, where’d you go?” Lucas asks. 

“I brought rainbow Skittles,” Max says and holds up a bag. Will lets out a weak laugh and smiles a little bit at her.   
“I thought you guys hated me,” he whispers. 

“Why would we hate you?” El asks, confused. 

“Because… because guys don’t normally like guys like that, El,” he explains. 

“That’s stupid,” she replies and Lucas nods. 

“You’re our best friend, Will. We’ll love you no matter what,” Dustin chimes in and Steve wants to hi-five him. That is how you respond to someone coming out- Steve’s taught his children well. 

Mike still hasn’t said anything- he just stares at Will like he’s never seen him before. 

Steve is ready to kick some ass when he stutters, “Yeah… yeah… what he said,” and then continues gaping at the other boy. Will sends him a smile that lights up the entire room and his face turns a subtle shade of pink. 

Oh. 

“Bring it in, guys,” Lucas says and then the party charges at Will, pulling him into a group hug that makes Steve smile. He’s so proud of these kids. 

“What’s going on, dingus?” Robin asks, appearing at his elbow. 

“Family bonding moment,” he replies and she grins.

“You’re a good mother, Harrington,” his best friend teases and he laughs. 

2  
Steve’s sitting in the Byers living room and listening to Will and Mike teach him how to make a D&D character sheet while regretting all his life decisions. Why did he agree to joining their campaign? It’s been five hours and he still doesn’t understand the difference between a mage and a cleric. 

Max tiptoes into the room from where she’s been hanging out with El and tugs on his sleeve a little bit. 

“Can I talk to you?” she asks. 

“Of course,” he says and gives an apologetic shrug to Will, who’s just launched into a lecture about the differences between intelligence and wisdom. 

He follows her out onto the porch, where she sits on the porch with her face behind her hands. 

“What’s wrong?” Steve asks. 

“I like girls,” she responds, her voice muffled by her hands. 

“And?” 

“Neil…” she starts and Steve grits his teeth, “He doesn’t like that.” 

“Yeah, well, he’s an asshole. I thought we established this,” Steve replies. 

Max looks up at him, “I don’t know how he found out, but he did and…” 

She doesn’t say anything else, doesn’t have to. Steve just sits down on the steps next to her and puts his arms around her shoulders while she shakes and tells him about how she thought that son of a bitch was going to kill her, that she biked to the Byers house with nothing but her walkie talkie and the clothes on her back. 

“You can stay with me, if you’d like,” he offers and Max smiles a little bit. 

“Thank you. And… thanks for being so cool about this.” 

“I’m here for you, kiddo, k?” Steve says and she hugs him fiercely. 

They go back inside to where El and Will are whispering to each other in hushed tones and when El sees Max, she smiles and runs straight at her. The two girls cling to each other as Steve makes his way back over to the couch and suffers through two more hours of D&D basics while zoning out and watching Back to the Future in his head or pretending that he’s at a basketball game. 

But, at the end of the day, he doesn’t hate it as much as he complains about it to Nancy, Robin and Jonathan. The kids love it and these are his kids and he loves them, so of course, he’s willing to sit through hours of their rants about paladins and clerics and bards if it makes them happy. 

3  
Apparently, Steve is some kind of legend at Dig Dug, because Dustin keeps dragging him to the arcade to show him off to the rest of the party. Max rolls her eyes every time, but even she looks impressed. Steve actually still has no idea how to play- he just hits random buttons and somehow doesn’t die. 

Mike keeps sputtering that it’s illogical and he has a terrible strategy, but he just shrugs and points at the high scores he consistently gets.   
Nancy’s little brother grumbles until Will pats his arm consolingly and he goes mute again. 

“Hey, Steve?” Dustin asks as they leave the arcade together. 

“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.” 

“Is there a word for someone who likes boys and girls?” the curly haired boy asks and adjusts his baseball cap. 

“I’m not sure,” Steve replies and then wonders, is there? 

“Probably,” he adds and then decides to ask Robin and Nancy because they know everything. 

“Well, I think I’m that,” Dustin says. 

“Cool,” Steve pats him on the shoulder and then, they get in the car, he turns on the radio and they sing along to Journey all the way home. 

4  
The first time Steve officially comes over to El’s cabin, they’re getting the last of her stuff and moving it over to the Byers house. She walks through the rooms and runs her hand along the walls, smiling a little bit with tears in her eyes. Max holds her hand the whole time, until they’ve got to start boxing up things.

El comes up to Steve while he’s picking up a teddy bear and putting it into one of the boxes. 

“Steve,” she says, “I like Max.” 

“I like Max, too,” he replies and then realizes that she means like-like. 

“No. I want to kiss her and I think she’s pretty,” El corrects him. 

“Ok,” he goes back to packaging things up. 

“What do I do?” 

Steve thinks back to how Max stares at El when she thinks no one’s looking and her confession a few weeks ago on the porch, as well as how she’s been staying with the Sinclairs ever since. He takes a deep breath and tries to come up with the best advice. After all, he could use some himself, given the amount of time he spends daydreaming about Jonathan Byers. 

“You could tell her how you feel,” he starts, “I know it’s hard, but you’re one of the bravest people I know.” 

“What if she doesn’t… feel the same?” El’s voice quivers a little bit. 

“That would suck, but… I wouldn’t worry about it.” 

Her eyes widen, “Did she tell you…?” 

“Find out yourself,” Steve says and then gently shoves her in Max’s direction. Both girls are blushing a few minutes later after they’ve finished talking in hushed tones and El grips Max’s hand as she drags her over to Steve. 

“She is my girlfriend now,” El tells him solemnly and he gives them both hi-fives. 

As the kids race each other out to his car with boxes, he grins after them and thinks, wow, they grow up so fast. 

Then, he laughs out loud because he imagines what Robin would say if she were here. 

5  
There’s a knock on Steve’s door in the middle of the night when he’s just trying to watch Star Wars and eat popcorn in peace. He groans and gets up off the couch to get the door, before flinging it open and seeing Mike Wheeler standing there in the pouring rain. 

“Wheeler, it’s the middle of the night. What’s up?” he asks and lets the kid in. 

Mike squints past him to the living room and asks, “Are you watching Star Wars?” 

“Stop trying to change the subject,” Steve replies and leads him to the living room before clicking the remote and turning the movie off. 

Mike runs a hand through his hair before sighing and collapsing onto the couch. 

“I didn’t know where else to go,” he says and Steve immediately freaks out. 

That is not something you want to hear from a teenage boy in the middle of the night. Steve tries to regulate his breathing, but the shock must be written all over his face because he’s never been good at keeping his emotions in check. Jonathan likes to say that he’s an open book and that’s why he takes so many pictures of him. Steve doesn’t know about that, but he really likes it when Jonathan holds up his camera victoriously and crows that Steve’s perfect. 

“I’ve been in love with this person for a really long time now and I don’t know what to do because I don’t want to mess anything up and if I say something, it’ll ruin everything and…” 

Steve puts a hand on Mike’s shoulder and says, “Kid, take a deep breath, ok? Start over.” 

He takes a shaky breath and closes his eyes for a minute before continuing. 

“I really like Will. I think I’m in love with him,” Mike says, “At first, I thought it was normal to care this much about your best friend, but Lucas and Dustin are my best friends too and it’s not like that with them. When he went missing… I just… I just got so scared that I was never going to be able to tell him, but I was also afraid of the way I was feeling and it was this whole mess, so I… anyway. I don’t want to ruin things, but I can’t keep pretending I don’t… that I just see him as a friend.” 

“Ok,” Steve starts, “That’s a lot to unpack, kiddo. But, it’s not the end of the world, ok? We already know Will likes guys and we know that he cares about you a lot. So, even if he doesn;t like you, it’s not going to ruin your friendship.” 

“Thanks, Steve,” Mike whispers. 

“What’s that, Wheeler? Don’t think those words have ever come out of your mouth before. Maybe you could say it a little louder,” Steve teases. 

“Shut up,” Mike grumbles, but he’s smiling. After watching the rest of Star Wars together and playfully arguing about which planet’s the best (“How can you say Tatooine, Steve?! Tatooine is a literal desert!”), Mike curls up on the couch and falls asleep. 

In the morning, Steve drives Mike over to the Byers house and he sprints up the steps to bang on the door. Will opens it and the two boys sit down on the porch together and talk for a few minutes. By the end of it, Will is grinning wildly and Mike is blushing while staring at his hands. Steve smiles at them and then starts to get back in his car when Jonathan Byers comes out looking like a dream. 

“Steve!” he shouts and smiles in that way that makes Steve’s heartbeat speed up. 

Well, shit. He’s gonna have to tell the kids, isn’t he? 

+1   
Steve paces back and forth in the Henderson living room as the party blinks up at him and waits for him to start speaking. 

“Are you gonna tell us why you called a code red?” Lucas asks. 

“Just give me a minute!” Steve snaps and wishes that he’d spent more time working on the speech he wrote and then gave up on after practicing it in front of a mirror for a few minutes. 

El speaks up from where she’s practically glued to Max’s side, “Max and I have a… date.” 

“Yeah,” the redhead frowns and puts an arm around her girlfriend. 

“It won’t take long,” Steve promises and then takes a deep breath, “I’m bisexual.” 

He’d asked Nancy and Robin frantically the night before if there was a word and Nancy just laughed at him as Robin explained what bisexuality was. He thinks her exact words were, “Steve, you dumbass, you are literally the definition of a chaotic bisexual”, but Nancy was cackling too hard for him to really hear her. 

“What’s that?” Dustin asks. 

“It means I like guys and girls,” he explains and the kid’s face lights up. 

“I’m that too!” 

“Me too!” El shouts and the two of them hi-five. 

“So, you like Jonathan, right?” Will says and Steve’s jaw drops. 

“Ummm… where’d you get that information from?” he squeaks. 

“I knew it!” Will cackles and then elbows Mike, “You owe me five bucks.” 

“You made bets on who I liked?!” Steve shouts, as if he hadn’t made Robin give him the ten bucks he was promised when Will and Mike finally held hands for the first time. 

“Well, yeah,” Mike shrugs, “I guessed Robin, but…” 

“Mike, you idiot!” Max screeches. 

“Well, I know that now!” he grumbles. 

“Ask him out,” Lucas claps his hands and grins. 

“Do it, Harrington,” Dustin adds. 

“I hate you all,” Steve mutters and then drives them to the arcade because he loves his kids. 

The next day, El and Will invite him over to their house for dinner with matching mischievous grins and if it takes him an extra twenty minutes to get ready, that’s no one’s business but his own.   
When he shows up, there’s nobody there but Jonathan standing in the kitchen and looking extremely confused. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks. 

“El and Will invited me for dinner,” Steve replies. 

“They’re having a sleepover at the Wheelers’ and Mom’s at work, so…” 

“Oh,” Steve says, because that’s all he can say as he stares at Jonathan Byers. 

“So… do you wanna… ummm…?” Jonathan stammers. 

He holds up his dish and says, “I brought some banana pudding?” 

The rest of the night, they sit on the floor in the kitchen, eat banana pudding and tease each other about stupid things they did in middle school before Jonathan pulls out his camera and starts snapping away at Steve’s face covered in whipped cream and wafer crumbs. 

When Steve gets up to drive home because it’s 10 at night and pitch black outside, Jonathan grabs his wrist and asks, “Stay?” 

So, of course he does. 

And, on one hand, he plans to lecture the kids about interfering in his love life, but on the other hand, he loves them with all his heart. Because those are Steve’s kids, no matter who they love and they’re perfect just the way they are. He wouldn’t change them for the world.


	2. you're the only person i want to date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> basically just stonathan fluff and confessions

“Who knew you could make banana pudding so well, Harrington?” Jonathan teased. 

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Steve laughed, “I can make like three things, including banana pudding.” 

“Hey, you wanna go to my room?” 

“What?” 

Jonathan blushed, “Not like that. Just like... I have some music that you might like.” 

“Oh, yeah.” 

Steve followed Jonathan down the hall and tried to ignore the way his heart sped up a little bit because, well, Jonathan probably wasn’t like that anyway. 

“So, I made this mixtape a few days ago and it reminds me of you, so...” 

Steve blinked and asked, “You made a mixtape that reminded you of me?” 

“That’s literally what I just said,” Jonathan replied and turned up the volume. 

“Is this... Jonathan Byers, do you listen to ABBA?” Steve asked. 

He turned bright red and mumbled about how “this is a really good song”. 

“Well, yeah, but... ABBA?” 

Steve was laughing so hard that he almost missed the lyrics, I think you'll be able to make all my dreams come true  
“Wait, why does this remind you of me?” 

“Steve. You idiot. Just listen to the song and you’ll see.” 

“I lay my life before you,” Steve hummed along and grinned, “I love this song!” 

“God, you are so stupid sometimes,” Jonathan grumbled. 

“Uhhh... sorry?” 

“I've been waiting for you?” he sighed, “Do I need to play the whole song again or can we move on to the next love ballad?” 

Steve blinked and asked, “The next what?” 

“The songs remind me of you because they’re love songs. That’s why. And I know you’ll be cool about it because you were great with the kids when they all... yeah, but it’s fine if you don’t... ummm...” 

“Wait, I’m still lost at the part where you said you like ABBA,” Steve interrupted. “I mean, I feel like I’m meeting a whole new person.” 

“Well, the next song on there’s by The Damned, so...” 

“There’s the Jonathan Byers I know and love,” he grinned and nudged Jonathan. 

“So, are we just ignoring my whole confession thing or...?” 

“No, because obviously the person I date has to be an ABBA fan. That’s like the only standard I have.” 

“Seriously?” Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

“No!” Steve laughed and then said, “And for the record? You’re the only person I want to date.” 

“Oh. Huh,” Jonathan grinned a bit. 

“Does that mean we can blast Dancing Queen now?” Steve asked. 

“Steve, you know I hate that song with a burning passion.”


	3. totally worth it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> breakfast after steve and jonathan's ABBA jam session

The next day, over breakfast (the rest of the banana pudding, Jonathan is addicted), Steve starts rambling, telling some stupid story where Mike ran into a wall because Will smiled at him and Max laughed so hard that she spit out her milk all over Lucas’s shirt and so, he took it off, which caused Dustin to start choking on his cereal and El just snapped pictures the whole time. 

“I knew teaching her photography would come in handy!” Jonathan laughs and Steve notices that there is whipped cream on his nose. 

“What’d you do, roll around in it?” he teases and Jonathan frowns at him, so he adds, “You have... ummm... your nose...” 

He attempts to gesture towards it, but when Jonathan doesn’t get the message, he just reaches over and brushes it off himself, before he realizes what he’s doing and soon, both guys are blushing. 

And, it’s a problem because Jonathan looks really adorable when he blushes. 

“Anyway, ummm... this other time... uhhh...” Steve trails off, trying to change the subject because he’s never been good with silence. 

“Steve,” Jonathan interrupts his babbling, “Just shut up and kiss me.” 

So, he does. 

And then Jonathan smiles at him and he’s grinning too and they’re about to kiss again, but he hears the sound of a camera clicking and looks up. 

“El!” Jonathan hisses. 

Sure enough, there are Will and El, still holding their suitcases and wearing shoes, staring at the two of them and blinking identically. 

“Lucas owes me twenty bucks!” Will shouts finally and sprints to his room, probably to go call the other boy on the walkie talkie and gloat. El just gives them both a huge thumbs up and then wanders off after him. 

“Sorry about that,” Jonathan whispers, “You know how they are...” 

“Yeah, I do,” Steve replies and smiles fondly after them because they are his kids.  
Then, of course, once they try to kiss again, Joyce walks in and drops her groceries because “finally, Jesus Christ, boys” and they’re cleaning up eggs, which Steve promises to rebuy later. 

He figures he’s not going to get a moment alone with Jonathan Byers for a while, but when they are stealing smiles and sending each other knowing glances and brushing hands while El recounts a high stakes game of tag, it is totally worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! Come visit me on tumblr at @eraseyourbookofstories to scream about Stranger Things or request some prompts. Thanks for reading! Love you beautiful people <3


End file.
